Just when we thought that the whole OnePlus One and Cyanogen fiasco was behind us, a new issue has surfaced for the OEM in India. Following a complaint from Micromax, a Delhi HC has ruled that the Chinese company will not be allowed to market and sell its smartphone in the country.
Additionally, it’s also barred from importing devices showing any sign of Cyanogen. The reason behind this development is that OnePlus One is infringing on Micromax’s exclusive rights over the brand in India. Earlier this month, the local OEM formed an ‘ambient services and application distributions’ agreement with the US based software developer.
It notes that major expenses have been incurred over creating this brand exclusivity to deliver phones with the Cyanogen OS onboard. And if OnePlus is allowed to continue offering its handset in India, Micromax ‘would suffer irreparable harm and loss,’ reports Livemint.
Also see: Court allows Xiaomi to sell its Qualcomm-based smartphones till Jan 8
The Chinese brand didn’t take the accusations lightly and revealed that it had entered a ‘collaboration and trademark license agreement’ with Cyanogen back in February which gives it the right to use the company’s name and software on its devices worldwide except for mainland China. It further added that the developer terminated the partnership just a couple of weeks before the India launch of the OnePlus One.
The sales ban isn’t likely to stick around for long as OnePlus is already working on an alternative to CyanogenMod for India and has promised to release the new firmware which is based on Lollipop sometime this month. The only difference is that instead of offering it to users over the air, it’ll have to pre-load the platform on all devices ahead of sale.